Hey All,

You all wont know me yet because i read these forums all the time but only just got off my lazy arse and decided to register and start posting. I read all these journals all the time and figured hey why not make my own.

Bit of a background my names Stu obviously and im from Australia (just to let people know we dont use kangaroos as taxi's)

Just turned 23 and have been obsessed with poker for the last 6-7 months. I work full time and well play poker as much as i can.

Anyway the story so far is...decided to try gamble a bit and deposited $50 on pokerstars. I had no knowledge on bankrolls or the game itself really and i quickly lost that $50 way to quick

Ok second attempt read heaps and heaps of forums on the net and decided i was going to try again. Played $5.50 SNGS including multitable SNGS on stars and made a quickfire $100 or so dollars doing so. For the last few months i have been toiling away still at SNG's as well as .25/50 and now .50/1 ring games on Absolute Poker.

The good news is the bankroll now stands at approx $550 thanks to some good play and some bonus whoring!

The Plan

Ok i have a strong desire now to up the stakes and start playing with the big boys, now im gonna wait till i get the bankroll obviously but ive set myself the target of $10k by this time next year. I figure it can be done if i bring my A game each time i play. My one weakness right now is that if the cards arnt coming my way i tend to try and take down a pot here and there by bluffing and this can often cause more problems than its worth.

Im soon going to make the move to 1/2 and that will probably tell me just how good i am at the moment.

Once i hit maybe $600-700 i will move up dunno if thats to early or not?

Anyways i will keep everyone posted on how things go! Also one more thing whats some good sites for MTT's with maybe 150 or so people involved with buy-ins around the $10 mark? been looking for a good spot to play them

$10,000 huh? That's an aggressive yet achievable goal.

I would move up to $1/$2 when you have $600 AND are comfortable playing for that much money. If you don't feel comfortable losing say $60 in a session when you have $600, stay at .5/$1 for a while longer before moving up.

Have you read any books?

I would urge you to stay away from multi table tournaments if you really want to get to $10,000 by next year, but I am pretty sure me saying that isn't gonna stop you.

Thanks for the reply Xaston, havent really delved to much into the books just yet but will be picking up Lee Jones' book shortly hopefully. What i have done is basically tried to study peoples game plans strategies etc from forums inculding this one, 2+2, UPF etc

At the moment the thought of losing say $60 in a day doesnt sound so bad $100's on the other hand might concern me. I think you are right about the MTT's also and i plan to maybe plan in a $10 MTT once a week or so just to change it up. I love playing NL however i just feel my game is alot stronger playing limit holdem.....of course the downside is the boredom factor of Limit which is why i think i should change it up a bit.

Anyway yeah at this stage ill stick to my guns at .5/1 no need to move up i dont think till i will hit the 1/2 tables till at least $600 and then things should start progressing quite quickly.

I think the 10K is acheivable and not really a massive unrealistic goal! of course you are right it is aggressive and quite frankly if i got it to say 5K i wouldnt complain its just i feel if i play my cards right i can do it.

An Update

Not much to report really only had a fairly quick hour or two session last night (which i think is american early morning)

Only played the one table at .5/1 and well went up and down like a yoyo!

One particular hand still fresh in my my mind really sucked i was in the big blind with A4o and it there were a few callers and we all saw a flop of 5, 2,3 giving me the straight. I bet and was called by 3 others and we saw a Q on the turn i bet out again and was reraised which i called. The river was a terrible 4 which meant the board had open ended straight draw up and i knew my opponent had made his higher straight i called it down and sure enough 68o what a fish!

All up not much progress and a return for my troubles of...$5 dollars LOL still better than losing i suppose.

One thing i am unhappy about is last week i tried to deposit at a site in time for their bonus and it turned out i missed it by a couple of minutes, im always screwing up the timezones. Anyway so i then have to wait 2 days to withdraw this money back to neteller then another 2 days once i have made my withdrawal for it to get there. Now i have to wait again for another chance to get a deposit bonus! Sigh!

Plan is tonight to have a solid session and hopefully hit the $600 mark so i can get going at 1/2 i feel i can beat this game i just need the peace of mind to know that it wont kill me if i dont.

Update

Had two 3 hour sessions yesterday which is alot considering i only play part time and work a full time job. Its a pretty heavy day working from say 8am-5pm then poker 6pm-12pm but i am still at the stage in poker where i love to play so im sure eventually that may wear off but for now the passion is there.

Ok well after the confidence shattering performance on the weekend i was determined to win some money back and really start playing my A game. I jumped on and went straight to a 1/2 table.....in hindsight this was a big mistake. This was one of the first times ive played 1/2 but i somehow i mustered up the courage to play there.

Things started off very badly i lost about 3 stacks so $60 all up to start with and suddenly my roll was down to $400. This was my first session. Got some dinner was really angry with myself but then came back a little more refreshed and just thought i would focus on not making any mistakes not worrying about monetary values, i bought in for another $20 and low and behold 3 hours later i am still sitting at this same table with $120! that is big for me considering i dont think ive ever won 6 times what i brought to the table but good news nontheless. This almost makes up for the bad performances and im feeling really good about my game again.

Bankroll back up to $550 again and well im eager as ever to keep going. Also i played in a $2 WSOP qualifier satelite event and nearly took it down, i was very close but the tourney was going for so long fatigue set in. I could have really set up but i had to start making some plays because i was so tired and had to work the next day. I was at one point chip leader at the final table but ah well out in 5th. I lost when i was in the BB and the SB mini raised me, i had AKs and thought well stuff and re raised. Flop came A K 6 rainbow and i thought you beauty and put him all in as he felt commited to the pot. He flips over 10,10 and i think to myself what a moron, i look up again and he had rivered the 10!! Ah well it was good experience and a chance to have a go at the main WSOP qualifier.

Anyway i have decided i love 6 Max (sorry Xaston) and i think im gonna stay there for now, if i come back whinging then you can tell me that you told me so. Also im thinking i will now make the permanent move to 1/2, i like it here and there seems to be less suckouts then .5/1 and below. Will keep you posted!

Small 1 hour session last night as i was exhasuted...

Jumped on a 1/2 table and played a few hands, one in particular was where i played with Q9o in LP with 4 other callers. Flop came a beautiful K,10,J flopping me a straight.

Nothing much else to report really left the table $20 up and went to sleep. Even if i can make $100 a week minimum now in a few months time i should be set to have a $2k bankroll and be playing 2/4 or 3/6 then my 10k will look alot more do-able!

Got a 2 hr session in last night and decided to 2-table the 1/2 tables. (this is a pretty big step up from 1 .50/1 table )

I jumped on and quickly found myself down maybe $20-30 bucks before getting any big hands. The absolute monster i flopped nearly made me jump out of my seat. I am sitting in the SB and i am dealt Kc 10c and limp to see a flop of Ac Qc 8c

At this stage i was just hoping that people would bet into me as i had the nut flush. I check as do a few others and one guy raises, the others fold and i re-raise him he bets right back at me and we cap the betting.

The Turn is a Jh which is perfect making it likely he has completed his straight or whatever he is playing at. I was upset i couldnt get my Jc here as i would have got a royal flush jackpot. Betting capped again is this guy insane???

The River is a Q spewing i wanted my royal!!!

betting capped and he flips over his straight....LOL and he says wow! nh! geez doesnt 3 clubs on the flop scare you? geez.....

Anyway cards were falling my way and i think i hit probably 1/2 my sets which is way above average.

Time Played for Session : 2:10
Profit/Loss +$45.50
Bonus Cleared $10

So yeah after all that not a bad session, that one pot above was huge and another 3 handed pot i played later where i flopped a set with my 8's held up those 2 hands made my night.

My Roll is now up to around $620 which makes it look a lot better than say at one point on the weekend where it nearly dipped below $400

One thing i can say is i have read alot about the downswings in 6-handed LHE and they are huge! next time hopefully i will be more prepared to deal with it when it comes around and not go on tilt

hi A-Train!

Great grand final wasnt it? was close all day! for all those not in the know with the grand final it is the equivalent of say the superbowl (australian football)

Pokerwise i had a terrible weekend. I am sick to death of the players on Friday/Saturdays and it is costing me! I lost alot of money over the weekend and had to dig deep just to try and get most of it back.

I went on tilt over the weekend after numerous suckouts and was down about $150 im usually pretty good with keeping my composure but this weekend was just to much to bear!

The good news is i recovered a little and the loss is now probably only around $70 it could have been a lot worse

Bankroll is now back at $550 and a week or two after starting this journal im back at square one. Ah well tonight begins a new week and i feel my game has improved at 6-handed LHE. We'll see how it goes

Good News and Bad News to report

Well i go with the bad to start with.......

I feel like death! this weekend saw me drink copius amounts of amber fluid i beleive they call it beer? lol in all seriousness though i feel like crap and have so for the past few days and today well im home sick. Of course that brings me to the good news i can bum around all day playing poker and see what its like for a day playing poker online

The good news is that ive been playing quite well. My roll is now probably closer to $600 and i just took down a $5 SNG on stars to start my morning. I am also playing in the stars $3 MTT which i usually dont get a chance at because of the time difference here in Oz.

Will post back later if some good fortune comes my way! One thing i would like to know is how the hell some of these psychos in the MTT's get their stacks so big so quickly! im at 3K which is double the starting 1500 after about 45 minutes, the chip leader is on 15,000 wtf?

ah well see how it goes.....

Ok the Results from my poker bum day are in!

Well not all that shabby really i played a crapload of SNGS $5.50 at Pokerstars results are shown below

13 SNGS played 5 ITM....

ok not to bad except all 5 were first place!!!

i dunno maybe it was today, maybe it was luck, but i was killing people short handed today i was calling massive raises when i had a read on a guy with an A high and nailing them. Obviously im not going to be able to keep up that sort of winrate but i think SNGS could be quite profitable for me.

I played alot of 6-handed also and well probably ended up around $25 up in that.

Bankroll now around $670 odd dollars so things are looking alot better

Needless to say im burnt out for the day after playing like probably at least 10 hours today!! never done that before and it does start to hurt your game!

Oh one more thing i had a fricken nut flush on the flop in a 1/2 LHE i had Kc Qc game flop came something like 6c 7c Ac I capped the betting then turn is an 8c and river is a 9c.

Of course my opponent has the 5c which completes his straight flush! i nearly vomited on that hand! fricken unbeleivable! ah well